Summer is a great time for young readers to practice the Language skills they have learnt this year. As a Parent it can be daunting to know where to start in helping your child better comprehend what they read. Today I am reviewing Reading Comprehension Camp by Smarty Ears Apps. It features 50 stories and five reading levels. The stories in Level one are for Grade 2-3 and are a single paragraph. The highest level, 5, are several paragraphs long and designed for Grades 6-7.  Like all Smarty Pants… Read more

The Buildo Museum is an interactive sticker book. It  allows your child the opportunity to create their own scenes inside a spooky museum. They have three options to choose from: 1. The gallery floor where they can hang paintings (or perhaps stage a heist!). 2. The dusty museum attic full of cobwebs and discarded artifacts. 3. The creepy museum basement where maybe monsters are created Each of these places is the potential backdrop for the scenes your child can create with digital… Read more

Fraction is a math concept that is easy to understand conceptually, but can get tricky when doing comparisons. Oh No Fractions is a simple FREE math app helping kids understand fraction comparison with intuitive visuals. Opening the app, kids will see two fractions. They need decide if the one on the left is GREATER or LESS than the one on the right, and slide their answer into the middle of the screen. After tapping on “I’M SURE”, they can check if… Read more

Summer is a time kids can take a break from their regular school work.  However, this doesn’t mean they should stay away from learning completely.  If they do, you will see a lot catch up work in the fall just to bring them back to where they were before the summer.  Ideally we want something that is fun and educational at the same time.  Math Evolve is a perfect app for this.  It is FREE now for limited time.  Mastering… Read more

I spot this app on App Store yesterday.  It is a very interesting music app – no key boards, but random objects shaped like a square, a round button, a triangle.   To make music, you simply move different objects around, the interactions among the objects create different sound, thus a beautiful piece of music.  The movements of the objects follow some physics principles: if you throw an object towards a wall, it will bounce back.  If you swing an object… Read more

I recently came across an app called Book Creator for iPAD. Just like the app title suggested, it is an app kids can use to create digital books. I reviewed some other apps with similar functions, like StoryKit. Comparing to StoryKit, both apps have the basic functions like adding pictures and text, recording voices and sound effects. Book Creator is more versatile than StoryKit. Some neat functions I liked: 1. Kids can resize the picture and rotate the picture into… Read more

One of the most difficult things as a parent of a young elementary school kid isn’t trying to help them to learn basic math, it’s helping them to recall all those facts quickly and accurately.  It’s something that takes tedious amounts of time, years even.  It is so important to learn though, because it’s the simple math mistakes that are also the easiest to avoid.  Math Kingdom can offer that sort of help for your child.  It can help you… Read more

Keep the children entertained and encourage them to use their little grey cells by downloading for free the SparkleFish app.  As claimed by the developer, it is “a hilarious audio story completion game for the iPhone, iPad and Nook Tablet that will have you laughing uncontrollably.” It is like a Mad Libs with voice.   The free version comes with the choice of five stories: A Fairy Tale; Infomercial; The Cold Remedy; The Greeting Card and Yearbook signing. In-app purchases… Read more

Today I want to introduce a website to everyone – AplusClick.  It is not an app, but a website.   However, it is a website that fully functions on iDevices.  I found many cool kids learning game sites, but most of those sites don’t function on iPAD.  I am so glad this one does, and I like it a lot.  To use a website like an app on your iPhone or iPAD, you can quickly create an app-like icon on… Read more

Pattern recognition is an important skill for early math learners.  Patterns by EdNinja is a perfect app for this purpose.  With the app, kids have to quickly analyze the pattern, relate and select an image to fill in the blanks at the beginning, middle or end of the pattern.  Depends on kids ability level, teachers or parents can add contours, colors and shapes into the patterns.  What is neat is the app has a way to make sure each child… Read more

Do your kids like pizza?  Do they like to make pizza?  We have a local pizza restaurant where kids can watch, through a big window, how pizzas were made.  Every time when we eat there, my son has to go watch and there are always many kids line up at the window waiting for their turns.  Now kids get the opportunity to make pizza themselves – on the iPAD.  Bamba Pizza is the app that letting kids be the chefs. … Read more

Since I posted best science apps for kids, I received several recommendations on Bobo Explores Lights, an app teaching kids science of light.  I contacted Game Collage, who designed the app, for a review copy.  I am so grateful they sent me one and I am very impressed with the app – the art, the interface, the content, the animation, the flow of the content, … everything! Designed for children ages 4-12, Bobo Explores Light covers 21 light-related topics, like… Read more

Guess How Much I Love You is an app based on Sam McBratney’s ever-popular book of the same title Guess How Much I Love You. I remember we read the book again and again with my son. I am sure your little one will like the book and this app. It is FREE for limited time. When I first saw the title, I though it is an interactive book. I was wrong. It is actually more like a movie. When… Read more

If you are looking for an app to teach your children about culture and various parts of the world, this app is for you. The folks over at The Melody Book have recently released Jazzy World Tour – Musical Journey for Kids. They have developed several music themed learning apps, such as Jazzy 123, Jazzy ABC and A Jazzy Day.  This app focuses on teaching about music and instruments through the exploration of a world tour. The opening screen takes… Read more